Tag: Education

One of the most challenging aspects of school is attaining high grades. But it gets so much more challenging when fellow students break the system and go to private tuition en masse to survive school because apparently adequate support isn’t provided to them in school. I went to an English medium school, where the medium of instruction + learning was entirely in the English Language. All we kids ever did was speak English in school, during school hours – in fact, if I remember correctly, communicating in Bengali in school premises was expressively not allowed. I think this system with private tuition that England fosters is highly unfair. I know even all my mates survived it, with sheer difficulty – it certainly was no piece of cake.

I still managed to put in my best effort and did things so many kids couldn’t – like getting conditional offers for Mechanical Engineering from six top UK universities, in the face of stiff local/global competition. There are only a couple of seats in each university for each subject, and thousands of children around the world, who annually strive to make it to top British universities – so, if I do the math, my head freezes over how I managed to do it.

Back in school, though, I found it impossible to cope with private tuition, post six hours of schooling, five days a week, because I also needed the weekend and school after hours to be just a kid and spend doing things more than just simply learning. Going to private tuition for me was the rarest episode because I would learn in the traditional method of going to school and coming back and working on my homework and spending plenty of hours learning for weekly tests for various subjects, as well.

I studied in one of the highest learning systems in the world, for schools, because it was an English system – naturally, if I always went to English medium schools, one after another, that’s what it would always be like. I would even get private tuition because I needed ‘extra help’ with some subjects in school, since I couldn’t understand one word of what a few of the teachers would teach in a few of the subjects, and there was no end in sight for it, after surviving school five years (from ‘Year I’ onwards), in the natural method.

I have the worst memories of having to incorporate learning in the afternoons and evening, as well. I just couldn’t mould myself the way so many others had because after five years of following the traditional learning method of ‘go to school and come back home and spend afternoons sleeping + evenings studying’, I was under the impression that, that was school was all about. And it really is: it’s the correct idea of schooling in England, and because I went to an English medium school, naturally my school was no different (at all) – everything was just the same. How could I expect anything else from what a school is and what it’s supposed to be?

I don’t understand how a kid who gets private tuition for each and every subject in school still manages to fit in time for playing, sleeping appropriately, spending time with friends or even watching the television regularly. As a kid, I know, it can do things to your morale – I know I felt it, when I saw en masse, so many kids come out with tonnes of A grades (metaphorically, speaking – they would top each year, as in come out first etc.) after practically spending all their after school hours studying in the unregulated system of ‘private tuition’. How a person wants to rise in the education system at university and not opt to drop out, following that experience, is something I will never understand because when I was in school, England sure didn’t care about the state of schools.

In many countries around the world, young girls constantly feel prejudice because of their gender, particularly for education. Although, countries such as Bangladesh and Ukraine have been able to majorly improve education attainment (plus, enrollment rates), the picture in every country in the world isn’t this bright: be it Iraq or India, the situations highlighted for a drop in denial to access in education, range from poverty to early child marriage, and many states are failing to push through important change.

There are many reasons why providing easier access to education for young girls should be a priority for governments: equipped with basic education skills, a young woman will be able to command her health needs, protect herself from incidents of domestic violence and gender-based exploitation, and also act as a patron of gender equality.

Women’s rights should always be put first, because without it women will not be able to perform the simplest of tasks, such as even play a part in their local democratic climates. Education helps women to become power figures in the world, and stand at par with men. It also provides women with the opportunity to make key public decisions and policy pushes, which outline providing accessible (and adaptable) education for young girls.

Women need help both at home and at work: education can inform young women on contraception, on why it is a good idea to build smaller families, and simply lead healthier lives. Furthermore, when more girls complete secondary school, the national growth rate also increases but at the moment there is still a gap inbetween the level of education amongst boys and girls.

What are needed are better schools and more girls in secondary schools because already there is a disparity in education attainment rate in the midst of girls who finish primary schools and those girls that finish secondary schools. Improving people’s awareness on why educating women is a novel idea can also start to break down barriers erected in societies, where normally men receive a higher degree of education than women to make them suitable for jobs and an income.

Bangladesh, for example, has made significant strides in the subject of women gaining the necessary education to join the national workforce, but even then, when it comes to dropping out of secondary schools, girls are exposed to a greater amount of risk than boys. There is a national shortage of female teachers in the country, in spite of its positive relationship with school attainment (plus, enrollment) rates for young girls; in Bangladesh, the improvement in the education sector has all been part of a national expansion plan introduced in the nineties, which had increased public spending for education and also created better schools.

I have never experienced bullying but some kids are just plain nasty and mental

Celebs acting like they are celebs and behaving like the normal day-to-day rules and regulations don’t apply to them isn’t an uncommon scenario. I think when you are in the public eye, it is very easy to get carried away with the idea that nothing can ever happen to you – that you are basically superhuman. You are not. You are still a human being bound by the shackles of the need to always practice keeping up rules and good performances in the public eye no matter what. In 1994, when Johnny Depp and Kate Moss were still dating, the two had a vicious spat and Depp started breaking everything in his hotel room and he was probably intoxicated during the episode – it even led to his arrest (Kate Moss wasn’t arrested) and it was actually in Depp’s nature to participate in violent acts. Depp had broken a lot of items in his very expensive hotel suite and he was shocked that he had to go behind bars for the suite-thrashing; he spent almost a day in prison before he got fined a huge sum and was told to stay out of trouble for six months.

What Johnny Depp had experienced was tragic – there is no doubt about that. You know, growing up I had been at the receiving end of a lot of people’s jealousy because I was born into privileges so many were not privileged to be born into. But this issue with jealousy only ever spiked up when I was in my doldrums somewhat. When I was in the doldrums, nearly everytime there would be verbal daggers thrown at you because people jealous of you had the chance to do that finally. My mum has always been very supportive of me during those times, and I did have my friends but that doesn’t mean that random kids I don’t know at all stopped being nasty because they got the chance. I didn’t experience bullying ever in the playground or school but I am pretty sure those nasty kids are bullies.

I think the expectation was there once that just because I was in the doldrums that there wouldn’t be any judgments going on thrown right at me because I was doing well in life – I mean, I was doing great work and I was just careless with my grades in really early 2015, which was a really horrible point in my life. I think, if I had even given it some thought, if I wasn’t that stupid about my academic performance, none of that would have happened. I had a very bad internship experience right before my academic grades sunk and I forgot to drop the subject for it so my academic performance sunk and it wasn’t even that alone – there was something there about missing an assignment in one of the subjects in the same term as the internship one that I should have explained for earlier on, that I was being very careless with before my academic performance sunk completely. It was a horrible experience: I began to think about how much of an idiot I looked infront of everybody because I genuinely never wanted to be a bad student. I actually wanted to do good in my studies from ever since I can remember.

After experiencing those difficulties where you feel like every kid must think so low of you because you did so bad in your studies and all around they are so excellent in theirs, coupled up with the fear of what to do with myself because I don’t know how I had ended up in that spot where every eye looking at you might be judging you and I cannot console myself at all that everything is going to be just fine – that only some late explaining of things will make everything alright, made it a horrible experience. Obviously, when your academic performance becomes low it’s not some matter you can hide because you are not supposed to do that bad in studies. It’s immediately out in the open and if you continue to be bad at your studies you might even get thrown out of uni – that prospect never happened to me because my academic performance sank twice, and twice is usually the allowed limit.

Right after that, when I was given the chance to prove myself once more I got a very high fever but I worked and worked and worked at my grades. I mean I studied like there was no tomorrow and now for four semesters after that I have been consistently doing very well in my studies. I want to improve faster than that and make absolutely all of my grades just fabulous but in three of those terms, I was affected because group assignments became suddenly like a singular responsibility, which was too much work for one person (me). But I have been doing great in my studies despite of it and I consulted my tutors about the assignment situation already, as well as talk about any other problems with them, I might be having that could act as a barrier to improving even more (like accommodation and everything which I had experienced before but are never again going to be a problem for me), so I feel really confident now; my tutors at my uni have always been really very amazing. I cannot get over how brilliant my grades have been for so long at uni now, and naturally my best mate, my mates, my dog and my mum are always on my team in everything I do, and they are always there to keep me very grounded and feeling constantly happy about it all.

What I learned from it all is to always win at verbal spats: kids who were nasty to me once immediately shifted tactic and began to act like they never even knew who I was even though I am so much more successful at every single thing in my life, than them. I mean, I am successful in my studies, and I am also a very successful blogger so I don’t understand why I should be taking any kind of rubbish from some kid who does not know their A to Z. They touch me when I am successful, even though I never speak to them and act rude. I mean, I do have a critical outlook to so many kids and their lives because my God! there are like a million things I disapprove of every single day, and it’s not even just for Hollywood celebs or something so I don’t get why these nasty bunch of kids act mental with me because I am so argumentative it won’t take me an instant to remind them their place in life and how they are totally oblivious to it and act like they are something else – they are not. They are not even a thing infront of me: I mean, a supermodel, a dropout-turned-billions-of-Grammy-winning-music-artist…they are just celebs and nothing else and you know what those billionaires are like – not very bright professionally, illiterate and with a profession that pays a lot despite it being an unintelligent career; I know celebs worked hard to get where they are in life but that does not mean they are very bright or have intelligent careers.

But still they are celebs that many cherish and worship. It’s a simple thing: I have my favourite celebs like Britney Spears (despite her total meltdown) and then there is Taylor Swift, who I just don’t really like. I think it’s totally alright to have your favourites in Hollywood: gosh! I can’t believe Britney actually cracked under pressure once…you should never crack under pressure…for one thing people (celebs included) are nasty to you. I never cracked under any kind of pressure myself…I like to have verbal spats, I like to criticize if that’s what a kid wants because they get nothing and act that way because I always love to win, I always win and I am just that cool in everything I do.

Oh! Am I the only one that ever experienced those hideous days of socializing, with the super-fun moments too? The fun is winning, though…

In school, one of the first priorities that you have is getting good grades. Naturally, if you aren’t an abnormal kid, then you also have yearnings to make friends, to socialize, to have a ball, to enjoy your hobbies (reading, for me)…because as the saying goes: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. I have seen that a lot of people don’t have this attitude to school-life: in my experience, they come from very small towns, with small mindsets. But that’s for uni, and nowhere, in my opinion, can you experience more of this than during Fresher’s Week. I do like the idea of having a ball making new friends as a fresher, alongside obviously having a grand time socializing because I do not ever want to end up as Jack. But that is not how everyone wants to dictate their life…at least that’s what it looks like to me: some look at Fresher’s Week as a way to make out with uglies (“pull”) because they are finally gonna get some, some look at it as an opportunity to do drag, drunk, whilst others just want to look hideous in a tutu, just because they can.

I can kind of comprehend the thought behind it: many women must think it is alright to not shave their legs, as the lyrics to All American Girl (one of my most favourite songs!) by Train, will let you know. I find that attitude disgusting, not the fact that girls should attempt to look good, naturally. I do not find the idea of having makeup on your face throughout the day, five-days-a-week, an entertaining thought, but that is what the concept of beauty is to so many young women, because frankly they are just not concerned with what constant makeup on your face will ever do to your skin. If you even attempt to poke that argument, if you even try to inspire them (in an effort to socialize at school) that at least these women should do it for the boys they want to date because my life taught me, so beautifully, that great boys always like/love pretty girls, the drama these women exude at those words is neverending. First, they insinuate that they will get that boy with makeup on their faces, and when they are 40 years old and married to them, their great boys won’t even care they look permanently ugly having given so little thought to their skin before when they were young, because he is already married to her.

Something inside of me just wanted to grab her and tell her to her face that no man in town ever gives up their love for pretty girls, marriage or no marriage. I mean, why would they? And why should they? I can never even entertain the thought that when I would be 40 years old, that all the boys that like me/love me/are my mates/are my best mates are fat white boys, who have just totally let gone of themselves and now look like so hideous because they just cannot be bothered anymore. It’s too gross to even consider…now, I know so many girls at school exude they can so keep a boyfriend with early-editions-of-that-attitude, because obviously they are almost always fake, they accompany them to practically every night out like a clingy (and suspicious lady), and then there is the whole art of how abnormal that looks because most of the time these ladies don’t really bother socializing with their boyfriend’s friends, a single one of them, and when they do, it’s just to impress their guy. But that’s just all about the beauty…one other point that I found highly absurd is that many boys and girls just don’t get socializing.

I think that when you see a face you recognize in your town post a lot of months graduating from school, because they are formerly from your school, the least you can do is be nice, polite, and say a fast “Hey, dude!” and go about to whatever you were doing, like, let’s say heading shopping. But no…the first natural reaction they have to you is to pretend to act like they never even knew you, when they spent everyday for a pretty long time looking at you, given you went to the same school and all, and then there is also the socializing as an entire school-group-of-friends, that everyone knew off. I experienced this myself, and sometimes I wonder if it is because I never agreed to the kind of dates my mates had – I just didn’t want to associate myself with boys like that! These girls are desperate for them, and the guys feel the same. I really don’t want to be friends with boys who don’t think I am important enough now that they have a girlfriend after so much trouble at being able to score (Clearly! Because most of them couldn’t score at the earlier part of their totally grownup school years, when so many boys had!) because believe it or not! this is the truth!

I was these boys’ mates long before they even met their girlfriends, and I was consistently mates with them, all throughout my school days, unlike every other girl I ever knew from school (inclusive of all the girls I would socialize with, and I wouldn’t label that as something that can be classified as an effort, like for so many other girls I socialized with because I find rudeness without a reason, very unpleasant) who would just very rarely socialize with them. I was these boys’ mates first, so naturally, I should be a bigger priority in their lives, not their new girlfriends. That’s just how I roll, and I am so bloody popular being real and being myself, all.the.time, so…period. I have to be honest here…I would socialize with the dudes as much as my calendar would allow me – I also have grades, work, washing, shopping, my pets, mates from my childhood, myself, watching The Simpsons, and so on to think about. I just cannot afford to be like their clingy girlfriends, it is really asking too much, and they never even exude they were looking for that quality in a mate, until after their girlfriends enter their lives, pretty much, and that also so vigorously! Whatever! I want to say that’s a whole socializing effort down the drain but I don’t really want to…I want to call it a great socializing experience, and nothing else because that’s what it was. I have such beautiful memories of friendship, and school, and even now they just keep piling on, so naturally, I don’t want to soak in that deep ***t. At least, I am never rude without a purpose…

Where to even begin having a fun socialising experience at college?

As a fresher at uni, one of the most sordid experiences you can have is to never find anyone to socialise with. I have fortunately never been part of that crowd who had that difficult episode to face as a new life began for them at college.

But often times it is one of the primary concerns students have about college: what if they are unable to make any friends at all, during their time there?

A couple of good ways to make friends at college, I believe, is to find clubs and societies to join. As a student, most kids come to college with a varied range of interests they have already cultivated in school: football, anime, cricket, debate, charitable work, developing new learning skills in a social environment, swimming, netball, rugby, music, dancing, basketball, being passionate about the environment, photography…the list is endless, and chances are that your college will also cater to a good proportion of these interests for students to actively participate in throughout each term.

If you find that what you normally count as a hobby, such as “cooking spaghetti” isn’t included as a club/society, then the ideal way to build a hefty contact book (a.k.a. socialise) would be to take up a new craft, which appeals to you. Now, would be the perfect time, to maybe learn, table tennis or judo or lacrosse, and meet likeminded people to socialise with, and have a ball?

But just exactly how dependable are these experiences at college when you really want to be a social butterfly?

I think sometimes one of the most harmful aspects of socialising can be when you cannot manage that life, when you are lucky enough to find it. From my first year at college, I properly socialised with kids from all across, be it the ones I meet at college, to fellow leaders in various fields – I always believed that I am a leader in voluntary work, and I found it effortless to socialise with young boys and girls that were prominent in a life outside of academia too, and it didn’t really always include for clubs/activities or in sports, it also meant that were pleasant to hang out with, for their distinct sociable characteristics.

How to be social at school…

Often, no matter at tennis championships or at college, you will meet kids huddled up with their own crowd, while you are still yet to find yours and this can end up making you feel horrifically lonely. But gathering friends wisely (I do that all the time because I am also very picky in relationships!) is worth it because then you never feel that you have compromised on anything and the friends you make are special enough for you to actually maintain for a lifetime. I have also seen kids totally lose their cool when they meet new kids at college – they completely forget about their past life back in school, and this can go from cheating on your boyfriend/girlfriend with someone you just met at college, to replacing your school gang with a new set of friends at college. What shockers!

I have never felt a pull towards those dirty deeds, in my life, and I think a part of that is because I am a leader in voluntary work. I think that when you have an electrifying experience with a new kid (or a new bunch of kids), as you are trying to build your social crowd, it’s very easy to feel that your new crush/friend at college is flawlessly perfect. To an external observer like me, who is totally secure in their bubble as a leader, I find that I cannot think the same things: usually these spontaneous crushes/friends are short, stout, a dude who wants to look like Channing Tatum at college (how uncool!), absurdly exotic, total morons or just simply ugly.

But if Skins are to be believed, and I don’t really see why not…then those are exactly the kind of boys, young girls sometimes get attracted to, and vice versa, but is that experience really ever worth it? I doubt it since they appear to be void of pleasantness and looks, which is why it’s so hard to understand that logic sometimes, as a leader, because so many good boys I socialise with can easily come and provide that experience for me (if I was up for it!) within a manner of a couple of seconds. I don’t understand why I must waste my time with all of those thoughts because my eyes can only find them physically repulsive, in every way.

These tragic romances or potential frenemies (joking!), once their “hypnotic charm” leaves you, like maybe in another term or two, are really not an overwhelming trend. It is only a small fraction of the kind of socialising, kids can expect at college because socialising at college is genuinely total fun all.the.time: most of the time, for me, it is the beer garden or the social areas at my college, a good book, work, cold soda, social networking, and a huge crowd chattering away animatedly all around me to keep me company, as I work on making my contact book, heftier and more fun, by the minute.

New faces and old busy crowds…

Today is yet another Orientation Day. I have seen so many of them since starting uni, and it is always a very busy day for so many new kids. As days go by and I get more academically and professionally successful, more and more students keep enrolling at my uni. That is what is one of the popular thoughts of the day, which I suppose is good. Most students imagine they can survive college but so few get a first class (in their degree) here, even though they always get straight As in each and every of the modules – when you check out the other kids’ marks when the tutors so proudly share them in the class, it doesn’t take getting of rocket science, to figure it out. I don’t think any of those kids want to be like me at all, and I am very proud of it. I have a mix of good grades, not simply straight As like them, but I am heading towards a 2:1, so what’s not there to totally be proud of myself?

At college, there is no exposure for me of kids coming from community schools or charter schools. They come from a diverse selection of backgrounds though: some have their own cars, some share their cars, some drive to college and some socialise too much (+ nothing else). I don’t mix with people like that really because I am very uncomfortable around them – college to me is about living independently, finally, not doing small talk with freaks. I find them freakish because these students drive to college, they never take the public transport – is it so tough for that many to find a place close to uni? I don’t think so, because so many kids graduate from my uni never having lived outside of halls, or switching accommodation, even.

It’s no longer the eighties, and school is more fun…

I think the experience makes them feel comfortable because every kid at my college is most definitely not independent, like me (I’m an individual!). I do not like the idea of never having to switch accommodation because that’s not what the college experience is about. I don’t know how to explain this but I have a rabid fear of publicly looking like I am being spoon fed or my apron strings still need to be tied for me during dinner, rather than do it myself. I would be lying if I said I’m not looking for a place for a while at least because I cannot just do sudden and last minute. I just cannot and that’s not how the system at college is supposed to work: I mean just look at the course selection matter! The moment we choose courses for each and every term, with it bundled up we get the timetable + the tuition fees for the modules we choose, that we must pay before the Final Exams (to sit for them, really), or if it’s happening late, I think, within the first two months of the term.

The halls (on campus accommodation) experience has been lovely for me because my room was nice enough, the staff (wardens, house cleaners, maintenance workers, etc.) are friendly and helpful, I got a chance to ride the shuttle bus every time I had to attend class, rather than just save it for town or whenever I needed to go to the NW library, but it’s definitely not suitable for me for the long term. I do not think I will be missing anything, no, and the washroom reeks of unhygienic practices, regularly for too long now, so I am very happy to be able to say goodbye to all of that, indeed. The oddities just keep on rolling: yesterday, I saw people sleeping in the Interior Architecture room, and I had never before seen students sleeping in class with their sleeping bags. I was so confused I asked the librarian about what is happening there but she told me she had like no idea. Wow! Some students can just sleep in the class at NW any time of the day…

I feel this Orientation Day should be about bigger matters to senior students, like me, because I cannot participate in those celebrations meant only for new students. So many kids are already busy with activities at uni, like me, even though it’s term break, and it’s been a very good experience seeing them be so much active, like me, in that sort of extracurricular manner, too. On Wednesday, which was just yesterday, when I was in SW Block A, I saw the Vice Chancellor (again) and other senior staff members, busy with people at my college, I do not recognise. I have lost count of just how many times I have seen the Vice Chancellor so far, and I doubt every kid at college had that privilege; before him I was just behaving totally proper and courteous, with a megawatt smile plastered on my face…

Do you feel your college gives you adequate support? Mine does!

In college, I find that the toughest challenge facing a student is the sheer amount of hard work that he or she must do, for doing well in their respective degree. For that I have had a countless amount of support because my uni is structured like that: the barriers to my academic growth for some time now, and it has even been brought to the knowledge of my amazing Dean (Department Dean), so that I can get the appropriate support required, are other students and accommodation.

For some time now, in group assignments I get paired with other students and they never do their work, so I suffer. One kid was so bad at this collaborative nature of work she did zero work and never told me about it until the day the assignment was scheduled to be submitted. I think she thought it was alright to not care at all, so absurdly how is it looking now? That I might have actually gotten an 8 out of 40 in my final exams, even though I did good in the subject previously in the semester before – I repeated it after telling my tutor that I wished to excel in it, rather than just get another basic pass, because I already do more than simply pass, in a couple of subjects.

Never fear…there is always the right level of support, no matter when you need it.

The accommodation issues are, like I have stated before, too confusing for me to sort out: the whole system is too rigid for me, and they are never flexible like the support team for international students, my department, etc., even for simple items the finance office should be understanding about; no matter where at uni, the Student Affairs section or the Registrars Office, everybody cares enough to understand when there is an emergency, too many times, so imagine how confusing the halls experience (both on campus and off campus) is getting for me. It is certainly confusing enough to go for counselling again, which I got an appointment for (again), but I am totally optimistic about that because it always goes good.

Meanwhile, yesterday I found out that one of my project based subjects got pushed to next semester, even though I had submitted the registration slip on time, during the briefing preceding classes officially starting for it. I had to meet my tutor for it, one of them, early morning on a Tuesday to find out about that, and I feel that I need to see my other tutor for the same subject now because whole of last term I regularly consulted her over my project on the National Maritime Museum, so how is it looking now that the subject got pushed to next term?

I want to do that soon because I already am so embarrassed I lost out on the opportunity to secure accommodation for the long term, when she (the same tutor) so very kindly offered to help me out with it last year because the experience was so traumatic for me, but I couldn’t take the offer up, since I had already found a place in halls by then. I had no idea back then that the accommodation office would be so rigid, all the time, but they are all about only following the rules, I think. I am already trying to picture which subjects to take along with Event Management (Project Management), next term, which kicks off early next week.